John Shahidi

Baseball, Books, and a Really Big Party

“I came across Oakland A’s playoff tickets that I wanted to donate to the hospital,“ John Shahidi says, reflecting on his first gift to Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland. He called the hospital to offer the coveted tickets and also inquired about the immediate needs of the hospital’s young patients. “At the time it was books,” John continues, “so I went to Amazon.com and ordered all the top-selling children’s books to send to Children’s”.

John lives in Southern California where he owns X Satellite, which is a sales partner for DIRECTV. However, he has fond childhood memories of the Bay Area and considers it his second home. He flew up to tour the hospital and see what else he could do to help. After meeting with Foundation staff, John decided to make his upcoming Halloween party a fundraiser to benefit the hospital’s new entertainment center. At the end of the party, nearly $8,000 was raised and sent to Children’s. Since then, he has enlisted the help of his friends in the entertainment and sports worlds to develop creative fundraising programs to benefit Children’s.

“It’s very satisfying to donate money, and it’s great to be able to see what is being done with it,” he says.” I’m going to continue to help Children’s Hospital in any way I can.”